German Chancellor Angela Merkel has largely abandoned support for the European Union’s migrant quota system, instead, pushing for what she has termed “flexible solidarity” and a “Marshall Plan” for Africa to prevent illegal migration.
Merkel made her remarks on Wednesday at a meeting of the European People’s Party, a European Union parliamentary group of which Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CSU) is a member, Le Point reports.
“If we fail to provide a common answer to questions of illegal migration, the foundations of the European Union will be called into question. Action is really needed here,” she said.
Merkel appeared to drop support for the quota system passed in 2015 but successfully resisted by Hungary, Poland, Czechia, and later Austria under Chancellor Sebastian Kurz — and now the new Italian populist coalition government as well.
“As chancellor, I belong to the European Council… the question of a majority decision [in favour of quotas] is not relevant there. A solution on this subject will certainly have to be prepared in the European Council,” she added.
Merkel went on to talk about a “flexible solidarity system where everyone can contribute”, but neglected to go into any depth on the topic.
Soros Demands Europe Give Africa 30 Billion Euros a Year to Prevent Collapse of the EU https://t.co/QAKQZnJ9vi
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 7, 2018
“Border guards, ultimately, will not be enough,” she said, and pushed a plan recently advocated by left-liberal billionaire George Soros to send money to Africa to prevent further mass illegal migration.
Soros called on the European Union to spend at least €30 billion per year for several years on the project, going into debt if needed, as he claimed the fate of the EU itself was at stake.
“Today it is ineffective because development aid is not coordinated within the Union and does not create economic dynamism in these countries,” Merkel claimed — implying she wants Brussels to take control of national foreign aid budgets.
However, the plan, which has been advocated by many in the past, will not succeed if a recent study by U.S. economist Michael A. Clemens is correct.
Clemens has suggested that development aid has the opposite effect to the one Merkel and Soros claim to intend, and that it would likely increase mass migration rather than slow it down.
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